It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

Ivandrago:It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

This.

I'm not military... But most of my friends and relatives that are have pretty healthy sense of humor and funny stories about training and war. My grandfather pulled some epic pranks on the men if his unit during WW2, you've all seen the YouTube videos of soldiers goofing around in Afghanistan and Iraq. I guess you'd have to have a sense of humor to cope with the training, all the downtime and even the horrors of war.

mutterfark:/when i die, i hope my memorial is like a comic's roast, and everybody gets lit

I wouldn't mind either Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life as my coffin in being put in the ground, or a Top Gear news segment-style eulogy ("....And so, we bid our final farewell to King Something. Anyway, the Mets just set a new record for futility...."), but these guys' shenanigans are a bit much.

kbronsito:Ivandrago: It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

This.

I'm not military... But most of my friends and relatives that are have pretty healthy sense of humor and funny stories about training and war. My grandfather pulled some epic pranks on the men if his unit during WW2, you've all seen the YouTube videos of soldiers goofing around in Afghanistan and Iraq. I guess you'd have to have a sense of humor to cope with the training, all the downtime and even the horrors of war.

When you train you get things called casualty cards that are in sealed envelopes so when you're a "casualty" the medic won't know how to treat you until he gets to you and you give him your card. They're organized like a deck of cards so they're random. The senior medics often forget to remove the wounds you don't get on the battlefields. It's not uncommon for an explosion or a shot to go off and an observer/controller to come by, declare a casualty, a medic to run up, be handed a card, open it and it say "Venereal disease." Casualties in war are generally not funny. This is hilarious when it happens. That doesn't mean we don't take casevac serious when doing it for real, it just means we're in training and sometimes training is funny and relaxed.

Delivering bodies to bereaved families is seriously farked up work. Gonna have to side with the unit that they need to get a little comic relief whenever they can. I'm willing to be that when these folks are doing an actual transport they are 100% professional. The funeral is about the guy in the box, not the audience.

Ivandrago:kbronsito: Ivandrago: It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

This.

I'm not military... But most of my friends and relatives that are have pretty healthy sense of humor and funny stories about training and war. My grandfather pulled some epic pranks on the men if his unit during WW2, you've all seen the YouTube videos of soldiers goofing around in Afghanistan and Iraq. I guess you'd have to have a sense of humor to cope with the training, all the downtime and even the horrors of war.

When you train you get things called casualty cards that are in sealed envelopes so when you're a "casualty" the medic won't know how to treat you until he gets to you and you give him your card. They're organized like a deck of cards so they're random. The senior medics often forget to remove the wounds you don't get on the battlefields. It's not uncommon for an explosion or a shot to go off and an observer/controller to come by, declare a casualty, a medic to run up, be handed a card, open it and it say "Venereal disease." Casualties in war are generally not funny. This is hilarious when it happens. That doesn't mean we don't take casevac serious when doing it for real, it just means we're in training and sometimes training is funny and relaxed.

My grandpa died of genital warts while storming the beach at Saipan. I'm not laughing.

King Something:A US National Guardswoman has been disciplined after apparently posting a photo online of soldiers clowning about around a flag-draped coffin.

Three females in that photo, one of whom is white and photogenic. So which of the other two got disciplined?

/and why didn't the rest of the soldiers in that pic get Article 15s as well? Why just one?

She was the one who posted the picture, as well as being the one who was stupid enough to claim she was going to fark up a funeral because it was cold out, and she was pissed she had to be outside. farking around with an empty coffin is one thing, claiming that you messed up a funeral because you didn't like the weather is something else.

advex101:Delivering bodies to bereaved families is seriously farked up work. Gonna have to side with the unit that they need to get a little comic relief whenever they can. I'm willing to be that when these folks are doing an actual transport they are 100% professional. The funeral is about the guy in the box, not the audience.

One of the big reasons she is getting disciplined is because she also put up a post biatching about having to do an outside funeral in the cold, and, because of it, "Someone is getting a messed up flag". Screw around at training all you want, but she said she was going to mess up an actual funeral. She deserved what she gets. She ISN'T being 100% professional.

devildog123:King Something: A US National Guardswoman has been disciplined after apparently posting a photo online of soldiers clowning about around a flag-draped coffin.

Three females in that photo, one of whom is white and photogenic. So which of the other two got disciplined?

/and why didn't the rest of the soldiers in that pic get Article 15s as well? Why just one?

She was the one who posted the picture, as well as being the one who was stupid enough to claim she was going to fark up a funeral because it was cold out, and she was pissed she had to be outside. farking around with an empty coffin is one thing, claiming that you messed up a funeral because you didn't like the weather is something else.

Oh, well in that case, a demotion to E-1 and 45/45 seems appropriate for that one soldier and a stern talking-to for the rest would be more than enough. And if she loses her civilian job because she isn't allowed to leave the Armory for a month and a half, good.

ransack.:My grandpa died of genital warts while storming the beach at Saipan. I'm not laughing.

IDK if this was a common practice all over... but on one or more of the bases were my grandfather was stationed during the war, there was a practice of putting a specific flag (i forget which color) to mark the barracks with the largest number of soldiers being treated for STDs. That flag marked grandpas unit for most of the war. He tried his very best to encourage the men to use rubbers or be more careful were they stuck their dicks but he apparently was not a very good officer and could't rally his men to accomplish the mission of getting that flag move elsewhere. /csb

Ivandrago:It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

Ten bucks says they were chickenhawks, not vets.

/vet//never saw combat///did Basic with a bunch of Wisconsin National Guardsmen, back in '93; nice kids, but some of them were from TINY towns and had never been to a movie theatre, or a fast food joint, or seen a black person. They had a bit of culture shock...

kbronsito:ransack.: My grandpa died of genital warts while storming the beach at Saipan. I'm not laughing.

IDK if this was a common practice all over... but on one or more of the bases were my grandfather was stationed during the war, there was a practice of putting a specific flag (i forget which color) to mark the barracks with the largest number of soldiers being treated for STDs. That flag marked grandpas unit for most of the war. He tried his very best to encourage the men to use rubbers or be more careful were they stuck their dicks but he apparently was not a very good officer and could't rally his men to accomplish the mission of getting that flag move elsewhere. /csb

PunGent:Ivandrago: It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

Ten bucks says they were chickenhawks, not vets.

/vet//never saw combat///did Basic with a bunch of Wisconsin National Guardsmen, back in '93; nice kids, but some of them were from TINY towns and had never been to a movie theatre, or a fast food joint, or seen a black person. They had a bit of culture shock...

I don't know, I know a lot of other vets, and a lot of them were pretty pissed. More before it came out that the coffin was empty, but most of them were more pissed when it turned out she was saying she farked up funerals because she didn't like the weather.

cynicalbastard:kbronsito: ransack.: My grandpa died of genital warts while storming the beach at Saipan. I'm not laughing.

IDK if this was a common practice all over... but on one or more of the bases were my grandfather was stationed during the war, there was a practice of putting a specific flag (i forget which color) to mark the barracks with the largest number of soldiers being treated for STDs. That flag marked grandpas unit for most of the war. He tried his very best to encourage the men to use rubbers or be more careful were they stuck their dicks but he apparently was not a very good officer and could't rally his men to accomplish the mission of getting that flag move elsewhere. /csb

Either that or unit pride manifested itself in a rather odd way.

I've seen posters telling sailors how the miraculous penicillin cures gonorrhea but this is a neat story I've never heard of before.

For the record, my grandpa didn't have genital warts, as far as I know, and he died of colon cancer in 2005. But he was a Marine, and he did storm the beaches at Tinian and Saipan.

devildog123:I don't know, I know a lot of other vets, and a lot of them were pretty pissed. More before it came out that the coffin was empty, but most of them were more pissed when it turned out she was saying she farked up funerals because she didn't like the weather.

I had the same reaction, then I thought about it a bit longer. That's when I realized it was probably just training.I did a funeral in the cold once for an old Korean War vet. It was cold and damp, so we wore our overcoat and gloves. You know, the reason we have an overcoat and gloves.

The Honor Guard is merely a detail that provides rites and rituals, or ceremonies for various events. Just to be clear, these guys aren't on the front lines getting killed by IEDs, nor are they ever going to see combat, so regardless of how you come down on this, I don't think the "blowing off steam" argument holds any weight whatsoever, especially when it was done with a casket, empty of not. There is nothing fun about a funeral. Their very job is to hold flags at funerals. One might think they would have a bit of reverence for what that represents.

When I was stationed at Leavenworth, I did funeral honors for about a year. 3-4 hours of practice every Wed with a fake coffin (laden with bricks to simulate wieght) and a flag. Practice is where you get whatever goofiness out of the way so you can do the real thing with the respect that it deserves. I wouldn't care if they were riding a training coffin horsey style as long as they do a good job with actual funerals.

That said, we did sometimes put the Fun in Funeral. It was due to my team that the rule "No strippers in the hotels" was created. And while the funerals were solemn affairs, we didn't personaly know the guy, so we would notice funny shait you normaly wouldn't notice by being all sad. Like a preacher who sounded just like Yogi Bear. Or a cremated guy who was buried in a fedex box. Seriously, his ashes showed up in the hearse in a farking fedex box. And like one person came to the funeral. Then the was the time one of our guys fell into the hole. It was during a heavy rain. We had finished with the ceremony and were turning to march away, and the ground gave away at one guy's feet, and he ended up waist deep in the body pit. We laughed at him later on.

There was the funeral where everyone was dressed like mob members, and when the 3 volleys were fired, most of them automatically reached into their jackets. And one time the coffin shows up without a flag. (funeral home is supposed to put it on the coffin). We had to stand outside and wait for about 30 minutes (in 10 degree weather in the snow) for the family to run down to walmart to buy a flag. Instead of the standard 5x9, they got a 3x5. We were staring at it like "WTF are we supposed to do with this?" usualy use 6 people to fold a flag, we used two and it looked like they were folding a paper football.

MythDragon:When I was stationed at Leavenworth, I did funeral honors for about a year. 3-4 hours of practice every Wed with a fake coffin (laden with bricks to simulate wieght) and a flag. Practice is where you get whatever goofiness out of the way so you can do the real thing with the respect that it deserves. I wouldn't care if they were riding a training coffin horsey style as long as they do a good job with actual funerals.

That said, we did sometimes put the Fun in Funeral. It was due to my team that the rule "No strippers in the hotels" was created. And while the funerals were solemn affairs, we didn't personaly know the guy, so we would notice funny shait you normaly wouldn't notice by being all sad. Like a preacher who sounded just like Yogi Bear. Or a cremated guy who was buried in a fedex box. Seriously, his ashes showed up in the hearse in a farking fedex box. And like one person came to the funeral. Then the was the time one of our guys fell into the hole. It was during a heavy rain. We had finished with the ceremony and were turning to march away, and the ground gave away at one guy's feet, and he ended up waist deep in the body pit. We laughed at him later on.

There was the funeral where everyone was dressed like mob members, and when the 3 volleys were fired, most of them automatically reached into their jackets. And one time the coffin shows up without a flag. (funeral home is supposed to put it on the coffin). We had to stand outside and wait for about 30 minutes (in 10 degree weather in the snow) for the family to run down to walmart to buy a flag. Instead of the standard 5x9, they got a 3x5. We were staring at it like "WTF are we supposed to do with this?" usualy use 6 people to fold a flag, we used two and it looked like they were folding a paper football.

Ivandrago:It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

That bugged me too. I spent 3 months on funeral details back in '91. It can be depressing work, especially when you're burying guys that are the same age as the detail. We could be dumbasses too when we were letting off some steam away from the public, but it didn't mean we didn't respect the fallen.

PunGent:Ivandrago: It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

Ten bucks says they were chickenhawks, not vets.

/vet//never saw combat///did Basic with a bunch of Wisconsin National Guardsmen, back in '93; nice kids, but some of them were from TINY towns and had never been to a movie theatre, or a fast food joint, or seen a black person. They had a bit of culture shock...

Lol my Basic was at Leonard Wood, Misery in 1990. 90% of the recruits were Guardsmen from Arkansas. Most of them were heading for intelligence training for AIT. It was... oh, the jokes made at their expense. They were pretty dumb and very gullible.

devildog123:She was the one who posted the picture, as well as being the one who was stupid enough to claim she was going to fark up a funeral because it was cold out, and she was pissed she had to be outside. farking around with an empty coffin is one thing, claiming that you messed up a funeral because you didn't like the weather is something else.

KidneyStone:/been to hundreds of military funerals an can't imagine the honor guard jacking up a flag on purpose.

We were on a funeral in the dead of winter in Montana. Farking cold outside. Well just as we are starting to fold the flag, one of the guys sniffs and a big frozen boogie pops out of his nose and goes bouncing into the middle of the flag. We try to gently get it off of there, but we can't do it without being obvious, so we ended up folding the booger in the flag. We really couldn't stop what we were doing and tilt the flag down because that would mess up the ceremony, then we would have to explain everyone what the hell was going on.

devildog123:PunGent: Ivandrago: It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

Ten bucks says they were chickenhawks, not vets.

/vet//never saw combat///did Basic with a bunch of Wisconsin National Guardsmen, back in '93; nice kids, but some of them were from TINY towns and had never been to a movie theatre, or a fast food joint, or seen a black person. They had a bit of culture shock...

I don't know, I know a lot of other vets, and a lot of them were pretty pissed. More before it came out that the coffin was empty, but most of them were more pissed when it turned out she was saying she farked up funerals because she didn't like the weather.

Towermonkey:PunGent: Ivandrago: It was training, so there's no body in the casket.What bothered me most was reactions from other military personnel. Soldiering is rarely super serious. I did a few funeral details when I was in and we always took the actual funerals seriously, but the training is taken as seriously as it needs to be. Vets on social media were calling for their heads when it's clear that this was not an actual funeral and they were their for training. These were national guardsmen on a TDY (which was always a little more relaxed), not the 3rd Infantry Regiment. People need to relax.The other picture with the woman complaining that it was too cold for a funeral and they got a jacked up flag is pretty messed up in my opinion.

Ten bucks says they were chickenhawks, not vets.

/vet//never saw combat///did Basic with a bunch of Wisconsin National Guardsmen, back in '93; nice kids, but some of them were from TINY towns and had never been to a movie theatre, or a fast food joint, or seen a black person. They had a bit of culture shock...

Lol my Basic was at Leonard Wood, Misery in 1990. 90% of the recruits were Guardsmen from Arkansas. Most of them were heading for intelligence training for AIT. It was... oh, the jokes made at their expense. They were pretty dumb and very gullible.

Hah! Ft. Lost-in-the-Woods here, too.

Passed through Ft. Smith, Arkansas for NCO training some years later...only place on the planet I've ever been that could screw up a gin and tonic.

Her comments aside; the biggest outrage for this kind of thing comes almost 100% from non-military and wanna-be pogues who spend all day online defending a type of service they know absolutely nothing about.

I'm a contractor in Afghanistan. Whenever we have to go outside the wire in a convoy, we end up standing around waiting for long periods of time; sometimes for other people to join us, sometimes for equipment malfunctions, and sometimes for the paperwork. During these times, the soldiers joke and kid around, clowning with each other. At some point the CO arrives and the briefing starts and everyone pays attention. They go over the details of what's going to happen, where they're going to go, and who is going to do what. As soon as these guys climb into their MRAPs, it's all 100% business. The driver is concentrating on the road and equipment, the navigator is focused on the GPS and radio, and the gunner is busy swiveling around, scanning the sides of the roads for anything that might be a threat. All business.When we arrive at our destination, it's smokes all around and the joking/clowning starts up again. And it continues until we mount up again.Personally, I'd hate to have to go outside the wire every day of my tour. The ups and downs would drive me crazy. I don't know how these guys can take it. I respect these guys for what they do.So I'm going to cut them a whole lot of slack when it comes to things like this. There's a time to be serious, but they also need a time to blow off the steam.

we used to keep beer in ours at ft myerI haven't seen any media butthurt about our soldiers dying overseasdon't get sand in yer monkey about the living ones practicing to bury their brothers and sisters